East Carolina University
USF
Gameday: ECU Hosts USF For Homecoming
October 24, 2019 | Football
| USF at ECU (Game 8) | |
| Date | Saturday, Oct. 26 |
| Time | 3:45 P.M. (EDT) |
| Location | Greenville, N.C. (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) |
| Tickets & Parking | Tickets | Parking |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | TuneIn Radio Online Television: ESPNU |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | ECU | USF | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | ECU | USF | The American |
| 2019 Statistics | ECU | USF |
| ECU Football Central | ECU Media Hub | Roster | The American | NCAA Football | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| ECU | The American | |
| ECU | ECU Football (in-game updates) | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUGameday | #PirateNation | #AmericanFB |
| ECU | The American | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – It's Homecoming on the ECU campus as the Pirates welcome USF to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday. After falling at UCF last week, East Carolina hopes to bounce back and even its overall record to 4-4 for the first time since 2015 when it battles the Bulls. The Pirates will also attempt to push their home ledger to 3-1 this year and capture their first-ever victory over USF (0-4) in Greenville. Lastly, ECU has downed 12 of its last 13 Homecoming opponents dating back to 2006.
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ECU RECORDS AND STREAKS
- Qualified for 10 bowl appearances since 2000 (eight in the last 13 years) ...
- Has thrown at least one TD pass in four-straight games (and in 11 of the last 14) ...
- Has made at least one field goal (when attempted) in 18-straight games ...
- Has booked 45 tackles for lost yardage in the last six games (7.5 pg) ...
- Has forced at least one turnover in six-straight games ...
- Has won 37 of the last 40 games when leading at the half ...
- Has won 13 of the last 14 games when leading at the end of the 3rd quarter ...
- Has won 12 of the last 13 Homecoming games ...
- Has limited opponents to just one (1) second-half TD in the last four home games ...
THE SERIES
USF leads East Carolina 8-1 all-time in a series which dates back to 2002 ... The 2003 and 2004 meetings were league contests while both programs were members of Conference USA, while the last five matchups (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018) have served as the Bulls' and Pirates' initial quintet of American Athletic Conference encounters ... The Papajohns.com Bowl matchup in Birmingham was ECU's first against then-Big East member USF at a neutral site ... The Pirates are winless (0-4) against the Bulls in Greenville and 1-3 in Tampa.
MIKE HOUSTON AGAINST THE BULLS
Including Mike Houston's prior eight-year tenure as a collegiate head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison, Saturday's game will mark his first-ever meeting against USF.
CHARLIE STRONG AGAINST THE PIRATES
While Saturday's contest will be Charlie Strong's third against East Carolina as a head coach, he did face the Pirates on one occasion as an assistant ... As defensive coordinator on Lou Holtz' staff at South Carolina, ECU pinned a 21-3 loss on the Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium in 1999 ... The Pirates have squared off against Southern Illinois, Louisville and Florida in their history, but never when Strong was on those respective staffs.
ECU & USF COACHING CONNECTIONS
East Carolina and USF each feature Skip Holtz on its all-time head coach roster page ... Holtz was 16-21 (.432) while guiding the Bulls for three seasons (2010-12) after leading the Pirates to a 38-27 (.585) mark, two Conference USA titles and an unprecedented run of four-straight bowl appearances from 2005 to 2009.
BULLS, KNIGHTS, 'CANES, 'NOLES, GATORS, OWLS AND PANTHERS
The Pirates have dropped 35 of 50 all-time matchups (15-35) against FBS (formerly Division I-A) programs from the state of Florida ... ECU is 10-8 vs. UCF, 2-9 vs. Miami, 1-0 vs. Florida Atlantic, 1-0 vs. Florida International, 1-8 vs. USF, 0-3 vs. Florida and 0-7 vs. Florida State ... The Pirates have lost 11 of the last 12 matchups against schools from Florida (posting its only win against UCF in the 2015 road finale).
THE AMERICAN - YEAR SIX
East Carolina has posted an 82-70 (.539) all-time mark against current members of the American Conference ... The Pirates currently sport series records against Memphis (15-8), Cincinnati (13-9), Tulane (11-5), UCF (10-8), Tulsa (8-6), Temple (8-9), Houston (7-7), Connecticut (4-1), SMU (4-3), Navy (1-6) and USF (1-8).
THE EAST HAS BEEN A BEAST
East Carolina owns a 5-17 mark (3-8/home, 2-9/road) against American Athletic Conference opponents in its own East Division since the league began divisional play in 2015 ... The Pirates' 44-7 win against UCF in their '15 road finale, a trio of victories vs. Connecticut (41-3/'16, 41-38/'17, 55-21/'18) and a 48-20 triumph against Cincinnati on Senior Day in 2017 represents the only quintet of triumphs ... In all, ECU is 3-1 vs. UConn, 1-3 vs. Cincinnati, 1-4 vs. UCF, 0-4 vs. USF and 0-5 vs. Temple while competing as division mates ... On the flipside, ECU is 2-11 against the West (1-1 vs. SMU, 1-1 vs. Tulsa, 0-2 vs. Houston, 0-2 vs. Memphis, 0-2 vs. Tulane, 0-3 vs. Navy).
2019 East Opponents: Temple/L 27-17, @UCF/L 41-28, USF (Oct. 26), Cincinnati (Nov. 2), @UConn (Nov. 23)
2019 West Opponents: @Navy/L 42-10, @SMU (Nov. 9), Tulsa (Nov. 30)
LEAGUE, NON-LEAGUE STATISTICAL COMPARISONS
The Pirates have averaged 18.3 points, 117.3 rushing yards, 226.7 passing yards and 344.0 total yards in their three (Navy, Temple, UCF) American Athletic Conference games of the 2019 season so far ... By comparison, ECU averaged 24.3 points, 195.8 rushing yards, 212.2 passing yards and 408.0 total yards per game in its four regular season non-conference contests this year ... The Pirates followed a 2-2 non-league ledger in 2018 with a 3-1 mark this fall and hope to improve their AAC record to 1-3 (1-7 last season) when they square off against USF.
COMPARING 10-YEAR, SEVEN-GAME RESULTS
Despite losing to UCF in its last outing, ECU's 3-4 record represents the best seven-game mark since 2015 (and marks the seventh time in the last 10 seasons the Pirates have won at least three contests in seven outings) ... A win over USF would give ECU a 4-4 ledger, which again would match the 2015 squad ... Additionally, the 4-4 clip would match the third-best eight-game "start" since 2010.
AT DOWDY-FICKLEN STADIUM - 2-1 IN 2019
ECU's all-time record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 191-103 (.650) ... The Pirates opened the facility on Sept. 21, 1963 with a 20-10 win over Brian Piccolo and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in front of 17,000 fans and celebrated the stadium's 50th anniversary in 2013 ... Before a 3-4 record last year and an 8-11 combined mark in 2015, 2016 & 2017, ECU was 5-1 in 2014, 2013 and 2012 (15-3) and won a combined 10 of 12 home matchups in 2009 (6-1) and 2008 (4-1) ... Overall, ECU has posted 39 winning campaigns at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since 1963.
THE PIRATE NATION - OVER 8.8 MILLION STRONG
ECU has always been able to claim plenty of hometown support, even more so when playing at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium during the fall - establishing among conference attendance leaders on a near annual basis ... In all, a total of 8,801,277 fans have seen the Pirates in action since 1963, and since the completion of a 7,000-seat expansion project in 2010 (to push capacity to 50,000), the Pirates have drawn 2,529,991 fans (42,881 per game).
AMERICAN ATTENDANCE LEADERS (2014-2019)
Since becoming a member of the American Athletic Conference in 2014, East Carolina leads the league in overall attendance average over a collective five-plus-year period … The Pirates have led the AAC in regular season attendance average three times - 2014, 2016 and 2017 ... Overall on the FBS level, ECU currently ranks 64th nationally in average (35,155) and 84th in capacity percentage (70.31).
SHUTOUT-FREE ... 273 AND COUNTING
ECU will enter the USF contest with an active streak of 273 games of not suffering a shutout – a school record (previous mark was 110 set from '71-'81) ... The last time the Pirates were blanked was on Oct. 4, 1997 (56-0 at Syracuse)
CHARTING THE PIRATES MONTH-BY-MONTH
In all, East Carolina is 3-3-0 in August, 130-119-1 in September, 162-160-4 in October, 139-127-5 in November, 9-10-0 in December and 1-4-0 in January ... The Pirates will try to regain their October productivity, a month in which ECU has now dropped 12 of its last 14 games (and 12 of the last 13 American Athletic Conference battles) dating back to 2015 ... At home however, ECU has won 13 of the last 19 (13-6) conference contests in October dating back to 2006, falling only to Temple (2015, 2017, 2019), UCF (2016, 2018) and Houston (2018) ... In fact, East Carolina enjoyed a 12-game home league October winning streak, which began in 2006 before it was snapped by Temple in 2015 ... Including that loss, the Pirates are just 1-6 in those "type" games since.
BACK-TO-BACK BONEYARD BATTLES
East Carolina will open a two-game homestand (in successive weeks) Saturday, first hosting USF before welcoming Cincinnati on Nov. 2 ... Since their membership in the American Athletic Conference, the Pirates are 2-8 when playing back-to-back weeks at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium: 2014: none; 2015: W/Tulsa (Oct. 17), L/Temple (Oct. 22); 2016: L/SMU (Nov. 12), L/Navy (Nov. 19); 2017: L/USF (Sept. 30), L/Temple (Oct. 7) and L/Tulane (Nov. 11), W/Cincinnati (Nov. 18); 2018: L/Houston (Oct. 13), L/UCF (Oct. 20).
UPDATING THE 2019 OVERALL SCHEDULE
ECU's 2019 opponents posted a combined 70-77 (.476) record in 2018 and are currently 44-39 (.530) this season ... The Pirates' four non-conference foes are currently 10-18 (.357), while the eight AAC squads have combined for a 34-21 (.618) mark ... Two yet-to-be-played opponents are nationally ranked in both polls and already bowl eligible - SMU (7-0) and Cincinnati (6-1).
BEEN THROUGH THE WARS
ECU's (10) assistant coaches bring an impressive 181 combined years of full-time Division I coaching experience to the Pirate program ... In addition, members of Mike Houston's staff have also turned in 33 combined seasons as a coordinator at college football's top level (FBS) ...ECU's staff also has two former collegiate head coaches - Donnie Kirkpatrick (Chattanooga/2000-02) and Byron Thweatt (Virginia State/2015).
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
The Pirates return 63.8 percent of their lettermen from a year ago, yet features a lineup which includes 49 freshmen (32 true, 17 redshirt) - which represents 46.7 percent of East Carolina's 2019 roster (and stands among the Top 20 "youngest" teams nationally).
FIRST-TIME STARTERS
East Carolina has featured nine (9) first-time starters in its first seven games so far this year - seven on the offensive side of the ball (RG Sean Bailey, TE Zech Byrd, RB Trace Christian, OR C.J. Johnson, RB Demetrius Mauney, RT Matt Morgan, OR Mydreon Vines) and two more on defense (CB Ja'Quan McMillian, OLB Gerard Stringer) ... The Pirates had 19 first-time starters in '18 after "introducing" a program-record 25 first-timers a year earlier in 2017.
2019 REDSHIRT TRACKER
The Pirates have utilized eight (8) true freshmen so far in 2019 - four on offense and four on defense - and seven have surpassed the four-game "limit" mandated by the NCAA: DL Rick D'Abreu (6 games played), CB Malik Fleming (7), IR Jsi Hatfield (7), DL Immanuel Hickman (1), OR C.J. Johnson (7), TE Jeremy Lewis (7), RB Demetrius Mauney (7) and CB Ja'Quan McMillian (7).
TOP PASSING UNIT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Since joining the AAC in 2014, the Pirates lead the league in passing yards over a combined five-plus-year period despite utilizing eight starting quarterbacks, four offensive coordinators and three head coaches: 1. ECU (20,982), 2. Memphis (20,744), 3. Cincinnati (18,614), 4. Houston (18,502) and 5. UCF (18,086) ... In addition, the Pirates also top the league in completions (1,800) and attempts (3,005) ... ECU has also accounted for a conference-high 16 400-yard passing games.
1K RECEIVER = LOOKING FOR EIGHT-STRAIGHT YEARS
ECU has featured at least one 1,000-yard receiver in seven-straight seasons (heading into the 2019 campaign), which ranks first at the FBS level ... ECU 1,000-yard receivers include: 2012 Justin Hardy (1,105), 2013 Hardy (1,284), 2014 Hardy (1,494) and Cam Worthy (1,016), 2015 Zay Jones (1,099), 2016 Jones (1,746), 2017 Trevon Brown (1,069) and 2018 Brown (1,123) ... ECU also has the top two receivers in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history by career receptions in Jones (399 from 2013-16) and Hardy (387 from 2011-2014) and have produced 10 1,000-yard pass catchers over the last decade - which ranks first nationally (with SMU).
RE-ESTABLISHING THE RUN ... PART I
Despite the impressive "recent" historical aerial totals listed above, Mike Houston's desire is to establish the run first ... That said, ECU has rushed for 1,135 yards through its first seven games, the program's fourth-highest ground total since 2000.
RE-ESTABLISHING THE RUN ... PART II
Mike Houston's squad (+46) is the first East Carolina team since 2009 (+26) to have more rushing attempts than pass attempts in its first seven games ... In fact, the 2019 Pirates are just one of nine ECU teams in the last 20 years to possess the same mindset:
BIG PLAY MAGIC
The Pirates have already turned in 39 "big plays" (20+ yards) in 2019 - an average of 5.6 per contest ... The most noticeable improvement has been in ECU's rushing attack, which has produced 15 long gainers - already surpassing full-season totals turned in by the 2016 (10) and 2017 (7) squads, while only two shy of the final 2018 number (17) with at least five contests remaining.
TAKING THE EXPRESS LANE
Because of the aforementioned big play production, the Pirates don't waste much time getting into the endzone .... Although East Carolina averages 6.9 plays per touchdown drive in 2019, it has only taken an average of 2:16 to reach paydirt ... In fact, not a single TD drive has exceeded the 5:00 mark - 11 of the 15 successful possessions have been under 3:59 (including all three at UCF, which averaged 44.7 seconds in duration).
2ND & 4.8
East Carolina has enjoyed notable production on first down so far this year, averaging over five yards per snap (5.2) ... The Pirates have had 224 first down plays, gained 1,164 yards, moved the chains on 42 occasions and reached the endzone seven times ... ECU averaged 6.9 yards per first-down snap at UCF (and had 14 plays of 10-plus yards).
BALL SECURITY
Despite being represented by plenty of youth on the offensive side of the ball and on their special teams return units, the Pirates have committed only 10 turnovers through the first seven contests - a number which stands as the second-fewest in a recent 20-year snapshot of program history.
DEFENSIVE FCS DOMINANCE FOR TROTT
First-year ECU Defensive Coordinator Bob Trott built quite a formidable unit during his recent tenure in the same role at James Madison ... During a three-year span from 2016 to 2018, JMU collectively ranked first nationally at the FCS level in turnovers forced (97), interceptions (66) and defensive pass efficiency (99.8), while standing second in scoring defense (15.7) ... In all, he tutored seven FCS All-America selections, a national and CAA Defensive Player-of-the-Year.
DEFENDING DIFFERENTLY ... X3-PLUS
From a clean record-keeping standpoint it's perhaps easier to say that East Carolina is one of 11 FBS programs to employ three different defensive coordinators in the last three seasons – Alabama, Akron, Bowling Green, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Temple, Tennessee and Texas State ... However, it would be more accurate to state the Pirates are the only team to have used 3-plus DCs since opening the 2017 campaign.
NO PASSING (TD) ZONE
ECU's defense has allowed only seven TD passes so far, which stands as the third-fewest in a season-opening seven-game span over the last 20 years.
GOING WITH WHAT WE HAVE
The Pirates have only utilized a total of 63 players through seven games this season, their lowest "roster usage" since 2006 ... Additionally, ECU has featured just 13 defensive starters so far, which is the lowest number (through seven tilts) in the modern era.
THIS & THAT ...
IR Deondre Farrier has an active streak of recording at least one reception in 18-straight contests heading into the USF tilt (last five in '17, all seven games played in '18 and all seven outings in '19) ... OR C.J. Johnson, who currently leads ECU with 27 catches, has posted back-to-back triple digit receiving yardage totals (8-100/TEM, 8-106/UCF) – an average of 12.9 yards per reception ... DE Kendall Futrell racked up a combined 9.0 TFLs and 7.0 sacks vs. ODU (3.5/3.0), TEM (3.5/2.0) and UCF (2.0/2.0), and has now booked four more stops in all seven contests this year ... At 5-foot-7, RS/IR Tyler Snead is the third-shortest (by height) returner at the FBS level in 2019, towering above Oregon State's Champ Flemings (5-5), New Mexico's Chad Alexander (5-6) and Arizona's J.J. Taylor (5-6) ... ... East Carolina has received the opening kickoff in all seven contests in 2019 (2-5 on coin tosses) ... The Pirates have netted a takeaway in six-straight games, their longest streak since a run of seven in a row during the '14 campaign ... Additionally, ECU has already blocked two punts this season (Warren Saba/ODU, Leroy Henley/UCF), the most in a "full" season since 2015 (SMU, BYU) ... East Carolina has only allowed a combined 21 points in the 4th quarter this year - an average of just 3.0 ppq.
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